Uncategorized Archives - Page 5 of 203

Global growth to remain subdued in 2025 amid uncertainty, UN report warns

·January 10, 2025·2 min read

The World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2025 report shows that despite withstanding a series of mutually reinforcing shocks, global economic growth has stagnated and remains below the pre-pandemic annual average of 3.2 per cent. The report produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), highlights the enduring impact...

UN Commission notes new sense of optimism in Syria during first-ever visit

Uncategorized

·January 10, 2025·2 min read

Commissioner Hanny Megally led the team, which met with officials, including in the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs. Discussions covered justice for victims and families, the protection of mass graves and evidence, and continued engagement with the Commission, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in August...

‘Children are now freezing to death’: harrowing updates from Gaza

Uncategorized

·January 10, 2025·2 min read

Tragically in the last month alone, eight newborns have died of hypothermia and 74 children have already died amid the brutal conditions of winter in 2025. “We enter this New Year carrying the same horrors as the last – there’s been no progress and no solace. Children are now freezing...

Lebanon: Election of new President a critical first step

Uncategorized

·January 9, 2025·1 min read

General Joseph Auon was declared President on Thursday following voting in Lebanon’s parliament. UN Secretary-General António Guterres congratulated the new leader as he takes up his functions, saying this is a critical step towards overcoming Lebanon’s political and institutional impasse after over two years of presidential vacuum. The election of...

More than 125,000 refugees return to Syria in desperate conditions

Uncategorized

·January 9, 2025·1 min read

Leading calls for the international community to “move from words to action” to help the country’s most vulnerable returnees urgently, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that many families have little shelter and few economic prospects. “In recent weeks, there has been talk in high-level international circles of the need...

Rights experts call for immediate release of Abu Zubaydah from Guantánamo

Uncategorized

·January 9, 2025·1 min read

On Monday the United States military sent 11 long-term detainees from the facility to Oman after reaching agreement with the Government there on relocation and resettlement. Only 15 detainees now remain, according to news reports. The prison opened in 2002 and at its peak it held more than 600 prisoners...

DPR Korea’s nuclear quest thwarts disarmament efforts, Security Council hears

Uncategorized

·January 9, 2025·2 min read

Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for peacebuilding and political affairs, briefed ambassadors two days after the DPRK, commonly known as North Korea, fired off what it described as a new type of intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile (IRBM) loaded with a hypersonic glide vehicle. He cited an official statement from Pyongyang which...

Ukraine in grip of third winter of escalating Russian attacks

Uncategorized

·January 8, 2025·1 min read

In a scheduled update mandated by the Council in Geneva, Nada Al-Nashif said that these attacks had led to the deaths of 574 civilians – an increase of 30 per cent over the previous year. She noted that Russian bombardment had also damaged key infrastructure such as water, heating and...

MIDDLE EAST LIVE: Security Council set to meet on Syria

Uncategorized

·January 8, 2025·1 min read

While the war in Gaza grinds on with dozens of civilians already reportedly killed and injured so far this year – and as the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon largely holds – hopes are still high for a successful transition of power in Damascus following the overthrow of the Assad regime,...

Lebanon: Appeal for $371.4 million to boost life-saving support

Uncategorized

·January 8, 2025·2 min read

Announced at the Grand Serail in Beirut by Deputy Prime Minister Saade el-Shami and UN Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza, the appeal extends emergency efforts through March 2025. It builds on the original Flash Appeal launched in October 2024, following the largest escalation of conflict since the 2006 Lebanon War. This extension...

More than 5,600 killed in Haiti gang violence in 2024

Uncategorized

·January 8, 2025·1 min read

These deaths represent an increase of over 1,000 on the total killings for 2023, according to figures verified by OHCHR. A further 2,212 people were injured and 1,494 kidnapped. “These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti but they show the unremitting violence to which people...

Avian flu risk still ‘low’ after first US patient dies from H5N1 virus: WHO

Uncategorized

·January 7, 2025·2 min read

WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris told reporters in Geneva that the H5N1 virus causing the disease is “not circulating in humans but jumping into humans” who are exposed to poultry or dairy cattle. “We’re not seeing sustained circulation,” she insisted. Underlying conditions The man who died of the disease in...